Broad-based alliance says drawn out election results are a wake-up call for Queensland politicians; and an opportunity to work together for the common good

posted by Irena Bee | 1181.20sc
December 07, 2017

BRISBANE 28 November 2017: The Queensland Community Alliance says that politicians should take this election as a wake-up call to work together, and with civil society, on the issues that matter to ordinary Queenslanders such as better-quality care, vocational training and secure employment.

The Alliance is looking forward to working with the re-elected government to find solutions to the common pressures people face -- after hearing scores of powerful and painful stories from people all over South East Queensland during several pre-election community assemblies.

“We are looking forward to building a stronger civil society and giving marginalised people a voice by working with our members, the new government and with all political parties on our two state-wide campaigns for all Queenslanders,” said Alliance co-chair, Ms Mitra Khakbaz. “We’re excited about the future of Queensland.”

“From our earliest beginnings our Alliance has focused on working with communities identifying issues important to them and building on their strength and capacity to address systemic barriers at both local and state level, and to build a robust civil society,” Ms Khakbaz said.

The Alliance -- a non-partisan coalition of 26 of Queensland’s biggest civil society organisations including faith, community groups, ethnic associations and unions, who together represent 1.66 million Queenslanders -- launched the campaigns at their Founding Assembly in August this year in front of 1,425 community leaders and the Premier, Ms Anastacia Palaszczuk.

“Once the election result is finalised we’ll be asking for that meeting,” said Alliance co-chair, Mr Roger Marshall.

“Our priority is the common good of Queensland long-term, and along the way developing the leadership capacity of people in our organisations to participate more fully in the democratic process of shaping public policy with the government and all political parties,” said Mr Marshall.

The Alliance had received public acknowledgement from nearly two dozen candidates across the political spectrum during the election campaign.

Both the Premier and Opposition Leader, Mr Tim Nicholls, confirmed their support for the Alliance in writing during the election campaign.

“Our presence is expanding over South East Queensland from Logan to Ipswich and throughout greater Brisbane. Our community leaders are determined to support each other in the issues that we face,” Mr Marshall said. “We’ll be following up with the leaders of both parties as well as individual MPs to keep local issues front and centre,” said Mr Marshall.

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Available for interview: Roger Marshall, Alliance co-chair and community leader in Logan

The Queensland Community Alliance has been growing since 2014 and is fiercely non-partisan. The Alliance draws on the community organising tradition of the USA that focusses on building individual relationships and identifying and training community leaders. The Alliance is founded on the personal relations built across organisations and through finding common pressures by listening to individual stories.

The Alliance has achieved wins for local issues including $2 million for maternity hubs in Logan, an Australia-first demand/response transport trial in Logan; parking concessions at hospitals for the chronically ill that have now been rolled out across Queensland; funding for a mental health collective impact project in Ipswich and public transport travel concessions for refugees.